"You can't do that." Of course you can.  You do that, and then distract the voters with POWPOW, Wright, Ayers, 9/11, terrorists, Joe Six Pack, "you betcha", wink wink ...

The Palin in an interview with Kristol:

"To tell you the truth, Bill, I don’t know why that association isn’t discussed more, because those were appalling things that that pastor had said about our great country, and to have sat in the pews for 20 years and listened to that — with, I don’t know, a sense of condoning it, I guess, because he didn’t get up and leave — to me, that does say something about character. But, you know, I guess that would be a John McCain call on whether he wants to bring that up. ... Only maybe I’d add just a couple more words, and that would be: ‘Take the gloves off.’ ”

I assume -- but only after checking the file properties of the image -- that the man at the center of the photograph with the long beard is Rasputin, but you might want to write a caption to make this clearer for those of us who don't have instant recall of notable facial characteristics from late imperial Russian history.

First time I've heard Rasputin invoked in conversation here. Does that mean that John McCain is also an irresistible ladies man who can cure hemophilia?

MCCAIN'S PLAN TO CUT MEDICARE.... Under John McCain's healthcare plan, Americans would move away from an employer-based system, and instead get tax credits they'd take to the free market to buy insurance. We've talked several times of late about the.

This is political hara kiri.  In an election where McCain requires the votes of elderly people scared of the black man with the funny name, McCain is taking a huge gamble by publicly stating he's going to hit said scared elderly sorts right where they live.

Dude.  That's putting the shotgun in your mouth and pulling the trigger, that is.

Or is this just a last, desperate attempt to get his straight-talk groove back?

Good for him.  If he's going to lose, he should go down talking about unpopular but potentially helpful things he would want to do, instead of in a flurry of lame attack ads.

I agree with ryanburke. But I don't think it comes in time to salvage his rep.

HITTING MCCAIN ON MEDICARE.... It's been nearly two weeks since the Wall Street Journal reported that John McCain planned to pay for his awful healthcare plan by cutting Medicare. I have to admit, I thought this would be a huge...